Thoughts on Time

(on entering a new year)
From everlasting to everlasting
You are God.
For a thousand years in Your eyes
Are as a day just passed
Or as a watch served in the night.

The days which we are given--
In them is seventy years;
Or if there is strength,
Eighty years.
Teach us our days thus to reckon
So that we may obtain a heart of wisdom.

---Moses, from Psalm 90   (translated by C. Marie Byars)

Christian Nature Poetry: More of the Original Translation

Successful Failure

"Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure." ---George Eliot [pseudonym for author Mary Ann Evans], Middlemarch (1871-2)

Un-Hidden Talents

    "Be true to yourselves; cherish whatever talent you possess, and in using it faithfully for the good of others you will most assuredly find happiness for yourself, and make of life no failure, but a beautiful success." ---Louisa May Alcott; "Happy Women" in The New York Ledger (1868)

Los Ranchos de Deneiros

Here's a sardonic observation about southwestern living: if a village or suburb has the name "Farm", "Ranch" or "Rancho" in it, the place, in fact, has no farms or ranches. And real estate there will be mucho expensive. And if a place has "Santa Fe" in the name you will have to have a LOT of "Holy Faith" and a whole lot more pesos to live there! ---Marie Byars

Getting Serious

It's one thing to take the Bible seriously; it's quite another matter entirely to take yourself seriously!!! --- original quotes from Marie Byars

      

    My other blog delves into Christianity quite a bit more than this blog does.  However, an integrated life means things are not going to fall into neat little categories.

    My other blog has my original translation of part of Philippians 2. This Biblical section is one of the rare poetic sections of the New Testament.  (There is much more poetry in the Old Testament, not just because it's longer, but because of the various styles used.)  This Biblical section discusses the humility Christians are called to live by. 

Anglo/American Humor

Q: When do the Brits celebrate Thanksgiving Day?
A: On the Fourth of July.      

in public domain

Q: How do Aussies get a purse away from a crocodile?
A: Give it a "Yank."

     Considering we pulled their bacon out of the fire in two World Wars & still have far better cuisine, I think we "Yanks" have the last laugh!  

     This blog has been trying to track down the origins of quotes and witty sayings.  This little joke is not easy to find the origins of.

Thoughts on "Joy"

Hi! I am JOY / A fruit of the Spirit;
I come to all Christians / But am often neglected. . .
I dance through creation / And make the stars twinkle
And fill the dry ground / When rain starts to sprinkle. . .

I'm there in all seasons / I love them ALL best.
After a day of hard work / Together we rest. . .
I haunted the Maker / Before He made time;
When all was pronounced good / The pleasure was mine. . .
I bestowed warmth upon earth / At Easter's SON-rise;
I'll escort you to heaven / When someday YOU rise!
---Marie Byars, 1984 (extractions from a longer poem)

Christian Nature Poetry: Full Poem on Joy

An Erma Bombeck Life*

Nature abhors a vacuum. And so do I. Especially since it's moving time! ---Marie Byars

*Erma Bombeck was a humorist who wrote mostly on the drudgery of household upkeep.  She once teamed up with Bil Keene, creator of the comic strip "Family Circus", to create the book Just Wait Till You Have Children of Your Own.

(More) Reasons to Hate SUV's!!!

 "Don't drive like my brother."  Don't drive like my brother."  --Tom & Ray Magliozzi, as Click & Clack, in their weekly sign off from NPR's "Car Talk."

   This is an opinion piece, some snarking at the oversized SUVs on the road.  [For my googlebot crawling friends, this is snarking, mild sarcasm.  I am not attempting to put false data about acceleration rates nor other things out into the internet.]

     We already know the $4.00+ gallon-a-gas reason to hate 'em. Here are more (in hyperbole form): (1) they obnoxiously slow down to .0001 m.p.h. to make a simple right turn around a corner; (2) they take 4.7 minutes to go from 0-15 m.p.h., clogging up traffic behind them waiting to pull out when the light turns green (my 4-cylinder stick shift starts out much faster w/o burning up fuel!); (3) they may not get smashed up as much as a compact in an accident, but they roll easier (and compacts are easier to navigate away from an accident, anyway!). ---Marie Byars

For Mother's Day: Martin Luther on Children

Children are the most delightful pledges of a loving marriage. They are the best wool on the sheep. ---Martin Luther

It is well known that children, according to the ordinary course of things, bear not only the physical appearance of their parents, but also their moral and mental characteristics. ---Martin Luther

In all simplicity and without any argument, children believe that God is gracious and that there is an eternal life. ----Martin Luther

Try Something New

Here's a novel thought: how about putting more people with a sociology or cultural anthropology background into the State Department??? ---Marie Byars

Fleet-Footed

"I could dance with you till the cows 🐮 come home. On second thought, I'd rather dance with the cows 🐮🐮🐮 till you came home!" --Groucho Marx in Duck Soup (Paramount Pictures, 1933)

    Groucho said this as the leader of Freedonia, His Excellency Rufus T. Firely.  As usual, he was making sport of someone kind of "stuffy." In this case, he was flirting with a pretty young woman while pursing the widow, Mrs. Teasdale, played by the stoic Margaret Dumont, for her money.  Mrs. Teasdale was the widow of the past leader and got Firefly the position.

      Dumont is sometimes referred to as the "Fifth Marx Brother" for her ability and willingness to play stuffy straight woman alongside the zany Marx Brothers.  (Zeppo Marx, who appeared in several of the early movies, was the lesser-known fourth.  There technically was a fifth brother, Gummo, who left the act to sere in WW1 and never returned.)

     The Marx Brothers movies, though settings change, generally follow a template. Chico and Harpo are friends who engage in a lot of slapstick comedy.  Harpo, of course, doesn't speak and mimes everything.  Chico usually gets in a piano solo, and Harpo usually gets in a harp solo (although that didn't happen in Duck Soup).  

     Groucho usually plays someone with an outlandish name who has "failed upward."  He gets into some sort of position with a little bit of authority through some misunderstanding of his actual abilities. Comedy ensues.  

    I like Groucho's work best of the three in the movies. However, you couldn't have three of the same, or it wouldn't work.  But Groucho is always reeling off one-liners like this, and you (or at least I did the first few times) have to listen hard for the multiple meanings of what he's saying.

     At the bottom of another post, I covered some of the pathos that Groucho's life actually encapsulated.

    Here, though, I shall move on to look at (literally) Margaret Dumont.  She was born as Juliette Baker.  For all the jabs Groucho took at her about her looks, she was a real beauty when she was younger.

Margaret Dumont, photo in public domain

Margaret Dumont & Groucho Marx in The Cocoanuts (1929); public domain

This Blog: Info about Freedonia and Duck Soup

Bane & Woe

Naughty, naughty, Poison Ivy:
Touch my skin and make me hive-y.
Blotchy skin and splotchy face:
Itchy, itchy every place!

Should have looked a little closer,
Maybe purchased from a grocer;
Should have brought a field guide:
Now I've got that stuff inside!
Thought I knew the out-of-doors---
Wandered over hills and moors---
Now I think I'll stay at home:
'Til tomorrow---then I'll roam.
---C. Marie Byars, 1986

Christian Nature Poetry: same poem, different blog

A Square Deal

"We must treat each man on his worth and merits as a man. We must see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less." ---Teddy Roosevelt; 1904 campaign [good words for this political season]

   

The Square Deal Speech: American Literature Website

This Blog: Popes, Labor, the Gilded Age and Theodore Roosevelt

You Musta Been a Beautiful Baby

"There's only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it." ---Chinese Proverb

Blog Author's First Mother's Day

Not an Addition

"Every time he opens his mouth, he subtracts from the sum total of human wisdom" ---Teddy Roosevelt; regarding a Civil Service Commission flunky

Theodore Roosevelt bus at Oyster Bay, NY, train station

I think we all want to say something like this at some point.  Unfortunately, we usually lack the "wit", "nerve" or "status" that would allow us to say it openly.  Plus, with my Christian values, I'd only have to repent later!

Friendship

As for myself, I judge the loss of all one's possessions easier to bear than the loss of a faithful friend. ---Martin Luther

Throughout life, a faithful friend is a very great blessing. . .he can offer help in ordinary dangerous difficulties, but also regarding spiritual temptations. For even though your heart is totally confirmed in the Holy Spirit, there is still a great advantage in having a friend with whom you can talk about religion and from whom you may hear words of comfort. ---Martin Luther

He that has many friends has no friends. ---AEsop

Why a Duck? (From the Marx Brothers)

[In the Marx Bros. movie Cocoanuts, Groucho is Mr. Hammer, a swindler conducting a Florida land auction. Chico is an idiot savant he hires to make false bids to drive up land prices. (Universal Studios most recently owned the rights to this movie, which entered the public domain.  The rights were sold and resold over time.)  This whole thing is silly spoof with double meanings, as is my comment about the naming of this blog at the end.]

HAMMER: Do you know what a lot is?
CHICO: Yeah, itsa too much.
HAMMER: I don't mean a whole lot. Just a little lot with nothing on it.
CHICO: Any time you gotta too much, you gotta whole lot. . .
HAMMER: Come here, Rand McNally and I'll explain this thing to you. Now look, this is a map and diagram of the whole Cocoanut section. . .Here's Cocoanut Manor. Here's Cocoanut Heights. That's a swamp; right over there where the road forks, that's Cocoanut Junction.
CHICO: Where have you got Cocoanut Custard?
HAMMER: Why, that's on the forks. You probably eat with your knife, so you wouldn't have to worry about that. . .Now, here's a little peninsula, and here is a viaduct leading over to the mainland.
CHICO: Why a duck?
HAMMER: . . .I say, here is a little peninsula, and here's a viaduct leading over to the mainland.
CHICO: All right. Why a duck?
HAMMER: I'm not playing Ask-Me-Another. I say, that's a viaduct.
CHICO: All right. Why a duck? Why a--why a duck? Why-a-no-chicken?
HAMMER: I don't know why-a-no-chicken. I'm a stranger here myself. All I know is that it's a viaduct. You try to cross over there a chicken, and you'll find out why a duck. It's deep water, that's viaduct.
CHICO: That's why a duck?
HAMMER: Look! Suppose you were out horseback riding and you came to that stream and wanted to ford over there. You couldn't make it. Too deep.
CHICO: But what do you want with a Ford when you gotta horse?
HAMMER: I'm sorry the matter ever came up. All I know is that it's a viaduct.
CHICO: Now look. . .all righta. . .I catcha on to why-a-horse, why-a-chicken, why-a-this, why-a-that. I no catch on to why-a-duck.
HAMMER: I was only fooling. They're going to build a tunnel in the morning. Now, is that clear to you?
CHICO: Yes, everything---except why-a-duck. . .
HAMMER: And then, there's a little clearing there, a little clearing around it. You see that wire fence there?
CHICO: All right. Why-a-fence?
HAMMER: Oh no. We're not going to go all through that again!

BTW: The URL of this blog---that's "why a duck" ["yaduck"]!!!

Happy St. Pat's!

    

     "I cannot keep silent. . .so many favors and graces has the Lord deigned to bestow on me in the land of my captivity [Ireland, the first time around]. For after chastisement from God. . .our way is to exalt Him and confess His wonders before every nation under heaven. . .I am imperfect in many things; nevertheless, I want my brethren and kinsfolk to know my nature so that they may perceive my soul's desire." ---The Confessions of St. Patrick (died March 17, A.D. 461)

   St. Patrick was born in the Roman province of Britain between AD 385-390.  His birthname was probably Maewyn Succat.  He was born into a wealthy Christian family.  While tending the family sheep in his " tweens" or teens, he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave.

     Patrick felt he had never taken his faith seriously before his kidnapping, and he experienced a spiritual awakening while enslaved.  He eventually escaped slavery, got theological training, and went back to Ireland as a missionary. 

    

Educational T.V.

"I find television very educating. Every time someone turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book!" ---Groucho Marx; in variant wordings throughout the 1950s

 

This Blog: More Groucho Quotes and a Short Bio

This blog, in its current updating, has been on a mission to track down sources of quotes more exactly.  This was as exact of a source as I could find for this quote.  

This blog has undergone a facelift to bring it into the more modern era of blogging expectations, especially as outlined by our dominant search engine.  Things have certainly changed in the years since Blogspot blogs started up, as noted by an update to my oldest surviving post on this blog.  

A Pithy Little Richard???

"The grass may be greener on the other side, but, believe me, it's just as hard to cut."  ---Little Richard; apparently on the Dick Cavett Show, 1970 

     Because the AI bot crawlers that go through our sites to determine their worthiness favor a literal interpretation of our writings unless told otherwise (or unless an entire blog is humor or satire, which this isn't), I am making sure to let the bots and the less cognizant humans among us know that the above quote from singer Little Richard is wry humor, based on a figure of speech.

   

    Little Richard used variations on this same witticism during various other appearances or in print.  He said something in an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribue in 1993. 

     Some online contributers suggest that Little Richard morphed the phrase slightly on an Arsenio Hall appearance in 1990.  In this telling, he is reported to have said the word "mow" for "cut" and that this led to then-youg Gen X developing the slang "mow" for eating quickly or "chowing down."  Finding exact details of this has been difficult.

    Little Richard's expression is a morphing, of course, of the old proverb "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence."  I hope most of the human readers can understand that this proverb in straightforward language means that things seem better in someone else's life from our vantage point that they might really be. 

     It's a common enough proverb that I'm sure even our literalistic web crawling bot friends have absorbed it into their programming to 'understand' (whatever that means to AI) the concrete language equivalent of the proverb.

     Long live humans with figures of speech!!!